This white paper outlines the facts that could be helpful for executives in a company to plan a cost reduction strategy for manufacturing process and implement new methods to grow business by increasing effectiveness of workers.

This white paper briefs the challenges faced by operation managers and purchasing professionals in a business and how a comprehensive , automated ERP solution can help gain control over costs and enable the purchasing department to establish effective internal controls and maximize purchasing power.

4 key benefits of automating the returns process (RMA):

• Improved communication within and between departments
• Greater efficiency in the returns process (from start to finish)
• The ability to gather information and measure returns
• Lower cost of sales

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT: ANALYZING INVENTORY TO MAXIMIZE PROFITABILITY

Every company strives to improve profitability. Countless hours are spent in meetings devising ways to lower operating costs while increasing sales and gross margins.

4 major inventory challenges that affect corporate profitability:

1. Dead stock does not provide a return on investment.
2. Money invested in excess inventory is not available for other opportunities to earn profits.
3. Stock outs result in lost profits since customers’ requests for products cannot be filled.
4. Inefficient warehouse operations require excessive labor and equipment.

It’s Tough Being A Distributor In Today’s Market.

These are top 4 challenges in today’s market:

1. Competition continues to increase as new distribution channels evolve and existing distribution channels expand.
2. Customers have more options to choose from when looking for sources of supply.
3. Many distributors are forced to lower their profit margins in order to remain competitive.
4. Lower margins are not the only result of this increased competition. Customers are in a position to demand more value added services and greater product availability.

Many distributors rely on their computer software to help them decide when to replenish the inventory of stock products and how much of each product to reorder. They are relying on the system to alleviate customer service problems and improve profitability. Unfortunately we’ve found that often management and even buyers do not understand what the actual definition and purpose of each of the application’s parameters. As a result, the system is often setup incorrectly or misused and the distributor does not receive all of the possible value from this very expensive tool.

In this whitepaper we discuss some common replenishment parameters found in distribution application software packages.

Be sure that all of your employees who are responsible for replenishing products understand these concepts. With this knowledge they will be able to maximize their productivity and help your organization achieve the goal of effective inventory management.

The parameters discussed in this document are designed to replenish stock items with recurring usage.

This white paper helps learn distributors the winning strategies for the industry. The benefits for maintaining all the operations through one location, and why there is a need to operate from more than one location? Stock product record maintenance.

EIM Fifth Step Managing Stock in Branch Locations
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Metrics for Distribution

What should we measure? How do we measure it?

If you cannot measure it, most likely you cannot manage it.

Download this whitepaper and learn how to measure success. Metrics make management possible. Take the time to do it right and you will not have to do it over.

The most fundamental strategic questions facing manufacturers today aren’t about technology or talent or stock price. They’re about customers — and the fundamental ways in which customer expectations have changed. Market dynamics have reduced most customer interactions to discussions of “price” without reference to value.

Changing the discussion from price to value increases margins dramatically. Adding more customer value does not mean proportionally more investment. It also enables manufacturers to grow customer loyalty as customers increasingly value the relationship, not merely the product or service.

Manufacturing Changing from Price to Value
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The Value of Manufacturing Visibility

Learn how to improved operations, customer service and increase profits by:

• Focus on the right measures—those that enable them to understand how well their processes are functioning, and those that matter most to their customers.
• Capture and share the right information across the supply chain, making sure that both suppliers and customers participate in the visibility process
• Offer timely access of information to the right people, allowing appropriate employees and partners to manage problems and capitalize on opportunities

Value of Manufacturing Visibility
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With the speed of globalization, industry convergence and technological change, CFOs are waging competitive battles on many fronts: streamlining business processes, leveraging new technologies and building value across the enterprise. If your organization is facing challenges like these, you need a model for evaluating what’s best for your business.

Today’s most effective software applications utilize less paperwork. As you explore accounting and other software systems, focus on how much paper you can eliminate during order entry, basic accounting input, shipping and handling efforts and other areas within your organization. The more paperwork and input you can eliminate, the more efficient and error-free your organization becomes.

If you’re thinking about implementing a new accounting system, you’ll want to gather all the facts before you make a decision. The new system can impact nearly everyone in your corporation, so each decision is critical. The task is substantial and it can be tough to stay within your budget.

This whitepaper is designed to give you good ideas and smart tips that CFOs, accounting managers, consultants and software publishers have shared with us over the years. In the end, you will be able to get the benefits out of it.

Many distributors spend thousands of dollars implementing new computer software systems to help them gain control of their largest investment, their inventory. But sometimes these distributors find that they are no better off after the new software is implemented than they were with their old system.

Management is frustrated and feels that they’ve wasted a lot of time and money. Often this has nothing to do with the software. The new system doesn’t perform up to its potential because the on-hand or available quantities of products in the new software do not agree with what is physically in the warehouse.|

Keeping Stock Balances Accurate

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Should your company buy manufacturing software?

Top 8 Challenges:

1. Does your company currently use bills of material?
2. Does your company currently have some kind of manufacturing software in place?
3. Has your company experienced huge growth or significantly altered its line of business in the last three years?
4. Does your manufacturing software integrate seamlessly with your accounting software?
5. Is your manufacturing software more than three years old?
6. Is there a satisfactory upgrade available from your current software supplier?
7. Is your accounting software more than three years old?
8. Is your manufacturing software an in-house package invented or developed by your internal programming/IT staff?

When it comes to choosing the right warehouse management system (WMS) for your business, it’s important to understand your warehouse needs and the benefits of having an integrated WMS before starting the selection process.

Today, more than ever, warehouse efficiency is a critical success factor to effectively managing your supply chain and achieving peak performance. Implementation of the latest technologies can significantly improve warehouse operations, employee productivity and customer satisfaction. By installing the right system and realigning how your warehouse interacts with your employees, customers, and vendors, you can streamline your warehouse operations while achieving a high return on investment.

Who should consider choosing a new accounting system?

To answer that question, ask yourself the following:

1. Do you want the freedom to choose among multiple operating systems, databases, and applications as your business expands or changes?
2. Company growing quickly and in need of a system that can grow with it.
3. Has your company outgrown your current system?
4. Do you want an e-business solution with an integrated financial backend?
5. Are you using a PC-based spreadsheet or an introductory accounting package? (QuickBooks)

Implementing the right solution and choosing an experienced solution provider provides both immediate and long-term benefits that can impact your day-to-day business processes across the board.

The challenges in today’s distribution system:

• Can’t keep up with their business demands
• Can’t provide the necessary information to help you make business decisions.
• Need to replace the system with a more robust business solution to support both financials and distributions.

• Increase new sales opportunities
• Improve collaboration across your organization
• Better decision-making
• Improve efficiency
• Help you manage the growth of your organization.

The Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 (also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) was passed by U.S. lawmakers to reinforce honest and transparent corporate practices in the wake of the various public accounting scandals and corporate failures of the 1990s. The Act has changed the way public companies do business.

IT controls that typically fall under the scope of a SOX 404 assessment may include:

• Specific application (transaction processing) control procedures that directly mitigate identified financial reporting risks. There are typically a few such controls within major applications in each financial process, such as accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, etc. The focus is on "key" controls (those that specifically address risks), not on the entire application.
• IT general controls that support the assertions that programs function as intended and that key financial reports are reliable, primarily change control and security controls.
• IT operations controls, which ensure that problems with processing are identified and corrected.

These 17 “rules of the road” for CRM were collected from executives, managers, employees and consultants who shared their experiences with us. Our goal is to provide you with useful information as you choose your own CRM system.

17 Rules of the Road for CRM 
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With the speed of globalization, industry convergence, and technological change, business owners are waging competitive battles on many fronts: streamlining business processes, leveraging new technologies, and building value across the enterprise.

If you’re thinking about implementing a new accounting system, you’ll want to gather all the facts before you make a decision. The new system can impact nearly everyone in your corporation, so each decision is critical. The task is substantial and it can be tough to stay within your budget.

This guide is designed to give you smart ideas and tips that business owners, accounting managers, consultants, and software publishers have shared with us over the years.

37 new ideas for growing businesses
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Effective Inventory Control

Effective inventory management allows a distributor to meet or exceed customers’ expectations of product availability by maintaining the amount of each item that will also maximize their company’s net profit. Effective inventory management is the result of outstanding inventory control and inventory management.

Inventory-related problems:

1. Have too much of some products.

This excess inventory and dead stock leads to decreased turnover and profitability.

1. Experience stock outs of other products.

The First Steps to Achieving Effective Inventory Control
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Accelerate your business with complete front and back office visibility

This white paper explains how front and back office visibility can be gained by enhancing customer relationship , empowering staff with enterprise-wide access to vital customer partner and prospect information resulting in accelerated business performance. 

Accelerate Your Performance with Complete Front and Back Office Visibility
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Simplifying Business Multiplication

To mitigate risks and expand business companies are now opting the 'Multiplication' method which is new type of growth equation. It involves multiple locations, languages, currencies and operating companies. This white paper explores the challenges faced when expanding business through 'Multiplication' and how to overcome them.

Simplifying Business Multiplication
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Transforming Finance

This white paper describes the benefits of strategic finance, issues holding finance back from a more strategic role, and how ERP systems can help finance take a seat at the strategic planning table.

Transforming Finance into Strategic Resource
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Growing Pains

This paper highlights the issues that are faced when switching from a software to an advanced software system with additional features

Growing Pains
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Distribution New Answers Old Questions

This white paper highlights on how to make business better and to improve ways through which specific processes or procedure can be accomplished.

Distribution New Answers Old Questions
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Managing Operations

The management of overall operations is a challenging task. This white paper discusses how technology is helpful in the acquisition, development and utilization of resources needed to deliver the product and services that the clients wants.

Managing Operations
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Simplify Purchasing and Reduce Costs through Automation

If any of these applicable for you then you need to learn how Automation can simplify Purchasing and reduce Costs.

• On 10% profit margins, reduction in expenses of just 5% has the same impact on the bottom-line as 50% higher sales
• Error in processes are implemented
• Missed delivery dates
• Angry customers
• Difficult to negotiate for better prices with preferred vendors
• Increase cost of employee turnove

For many of us bar coding is a little bit of black and white magic. Our introduction to bar codes probably came at the check-out of our local supermarket or the retail counter of a clothing store. Depending on the relative success of that system’s implementation, your experience was either satisfaction with an efficient and accurate business transaction or frustration with a lengthy delay.

3 competitive advantages of having Bar code system:

1. Immediate access to accurate information
2. Improved performance in collecting information.
3. Cost effective information to share with your Trading Partners.

We know that your implementation will be judged by employees, suppliers, customers and your accountant! A successful solution delivers benefits to all concerned.

The Wal-Marts and Targets have broken huge ground on the future use of technology in the supply chain. They are the pioneers forging new trails, opening up boundless opportunity for the true entrepreneur so that they may build their IT infrastructure to support the compliance standards set by these leaders. A small Distributor can compete with a competitor ten times it size by simply using IT as a strategic weapon. It’s that simple.

1. The movement towards highly advanced electronically collaborative supply chains is well underway.
2. Companies that are in denial are simply going to fall further and further behind in the race for business.
3. No matter what market, what product or what service you offer, it is critical that business owners and senior executives understand the opportunities of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
4. Companies must also see compliance demands as the wave of the future, and build a strategic relationship with them rather than fight the inevitable.

Independent research suggests that the area of back-office connectivity is not adequately addressed by many CRM implementations, meaning, customer data cannot be shared effectively and business processes are prone to errors, delays, and unnecessary paperwork. Over the long term, this will significantly and negatively impact overall customer satisfaction, as well as increase transactional costs on an exponential basis.

This whitepaper demonstrates how front-to-back-office integration enables small and midsized businesses (SMBs) to address these issues.

Specifically, it details how integration-ready solutions allow SMBs to seamlessly connect their business processes, applications, and data to:

1. Manage customer relationships more effectively
2. Reduce costs
3. Increase profitability over the long term. Significantly, this can be achieved without the cost and complexity normally associated with projects of this type.
4. Improve front-to-back-office data consistency
5. Achieve sustainable competitive advantage over the long term.

Making the move: What to do when you’ve outgrown Quickbooks

QuickBooks provided the basic bookkeeping capabilities you needed to start your company. But things have changed. You have more customers. More employees. More complexity. In short, your small business isn’t so small anymore.

So how do you make the move to a more powerful accounting solution?

It’s critical to gather all the facts before you make a decision. The new system can impact nearly everyone in your company.

Business Relationship Management (BRM)

Using Information to Enhance Supplier, Customer and Employee Interactions

Imagine that you are the controller of a medium-sized business.

You are aware that at least one customer has been unhappy about his recent invoices, and has complained because credits have not been properly applied. It is a real problem because you cannot easily get critical data from the warehouse related to what was returned and if it really of such poor quality it could not be used. There is no use calling the salesman on the account, he will only yell at you to “get it corrected and take care of the customer”—even if the customer is wrong.

Find out what would happen if you have a working Business Relationship Management (BRM) system where all data is integrated and available.